Breakfast Buns

My mum hails from Sweden, these are a homage to Swedish breakfasts - my bun trilogy.

Sour Cherry and Walnut Buns
I've mixed together a basic bread recipe with a hot cross bun recipe and sexed it up a little with sour cherries and cider. I've used almond milk infused with vanilla and dark muscovado sugar as the base to which i add the yeast. This gives the buns a light nutty sweet flavour with tangy sour cherries and crunchy toasted walnuts. I normally pre-roast the walnuts a little to give them more flavour and rub off the skins which can be bitter.

Ingredients

250g strong smoked flour (or strong white flour)

300g spelt flour

50g butter - cubed

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

100g toasted walnuts (5-7 mins at 175 degrees)

65g dried sour cherries

300 ml almond milk

3 tbsp dark muscavado sugar

11/2 tsp fast action yeast

1 beaten egg

1 tsp vanilla essence

150ml cider

3 tbsp cherry jam 

1 star anise

Directions

**1**

Sift together the flours removing half of the residue. Add the spices and wheatgerm. Meanwhile heat the almond milk gently and dissolve in the sugar and vanilla. 

**2**

Rub the butter into the flour mix and allow the milk to cool a little. Add the yeast to the milk then make a well in the flour and pour in the milk followed by the egg. Mix the milk and egg in with your hands adding more flour if needed. Kneed the dough aggressively for 10 minutes before kneeding in the sour cherries and walnuts. Allow the dough to rise for 1 hour.

**3**

Knock down the dough by pulling off small handfuls to make small bun sized balls (the dough will rise again). Place the balls onto buttered greaseproof paper and allow to rise for 1 more hour. Meanwhile reduce the jam/cider and anise into a sticky glaze. Glaze the buns with a brush, saving some glaze to add after they have baked. Bake at 200 degrees centigrade for 14-16 minutes until golden.